Home sweet home

There's no place like home. We just got home this evening from our mini-vacation. We tried out hotwire.com for a hotel. We picked the $50 joint that had the amenities we needed, and we ended up at a Best Western in Irving. Good enough, even though we had Grapevine or Mid-Cities in mind!

Our first stop was at Cabela's in Fort Worth. This was a great place for all of us to look around. They had so many animals displayed. The kids loved the talking rhino and lion upstairs. Braden played the shooting game for only 50 cents per round. He also commented that big elephant's "poop comes out right there" as he pointed to its rear end! Landry loved the fish the best. She was actually saying "ish" very well, too. Her speech has grown by leaps and bounds.

Next stop: Pappadeaux's Seafood Kitchen. Mmmm, mmmm! This was my choice. Although I used to claim not to like seafood, I'm finding more and more that I do like it. We shared the big platter of everything. My favorite is the stuffed crab and dirty rice. We had to follow up too much supper with a little Marble Slab ice cream on the way to the hotel.

Once we made it to our room, the kids were absolutely hysterical. It was like they were animals turned loose in an open field. They ran around that room like little wild monkeys. Jason and I decided to push the two double beds together and make one giant bed. This worked out great once we all got to sleep. When we laid down we felt the room was unusually stuffy. The A/C was not broken... it was just the little paws that turned it off!

We all got up this morning a little before 8. I went to the lobby and got as much continental breakfast as I could carry. Hansel and Gretel would have had a hayday picking up the crumbs in our room after Landry finished eating/playing with her blueberry muffin. Braden got in trouble for writing on the wall (with pencil) and for putting Landry's baby doll in the refrigerator! He's just a boy! Landry got in trouble for playing in the potty... imagine that!

We took off for the mall to fight the tax-free weekend crowds. We all shopped a little, then the boys went to the Penguin movie while the girls finished shopping. Landry was a real trooper. She slept for a little while in her stroller, and when she woke up she was very patient with all my browsing. I feel a little guilty that we didn't buy the kids anything, but they didn't need anything. Jason got some new clothes for school that fit his shrunken body. He was encouraged to buy smaller sizes, and he's looking forward to even smaller sizes when he reaches his goal weight.

The highlight of our trip was Landry's new words. She had so many on our short trip, but the greatest was when she started saying 'I love you' which sounds like "o-bu" sometimes and "oo-ve" sometimes. She is my princess! We had a great time just being together and doing something different.

But, it's always good to get home!!